Sunday Post July 18, 2021/It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday July 19, 2021

I am linking with Sunday Post at Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? now at The Book Date (at Wordpress)

What Are You Reading? is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Last week was a little more tense with the moisture in the office which made me leave early on Monday so our wonderful cleaning lady could remove a ceiling tile in my office that was dripping black onto my carpet. We had it tested Thursday. Although we don't have the test results back the inspector indicated he doesn't think it is mold (good news) but it is run off water coming through a roof leak, not the AC unit. We'll know more when we get the report and can take suitable action.

This week we celebrated (my baby girl) Heather's 34th Birthday.
The girls in office love to decorate for each other! They did use 34 candles for her cake!

Heather is the blonde. I got to enjoy cake but then had to leave for a conference three hours away so I missed the full staff picture.

We didn't get all the storms we expected last week but it was hot. This week's forecast is storms everyday.

Again I had good listening even though my reading is still slow. (I am reading the ebook on the computer because I couldn't get it transferred to the Kindle or phone.) I finished two audio books. I posted three reviews and my usual memes.

I visited 18 blogs again last week.
Shout Out this week to DRAGONS and WHIMSEY. This is Hannah's “geeky hobby blog” where she talks "about books, video games, tabletop games, music, maybe mental health and life, whatever tickles my fancy."

Audible offerings for free children's titles ended June 30.
Audiobooks.com is still sharing some free listens for children.

These were last week's posts:

• Sunday Post July 11, 2021/It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday July 12, 2021.

• ATBR- Audible Book Review: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop; Genre: Alternate History, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy; My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.5; Narration 5.0.

• ATBR- Audible Book Review: Baron Steele by Rhett C. Bruno, Jaime Castle; Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy; My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Content 4.0; Narration 4.5.

• Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway July 16, 2021. Open Worldwide. Ending 7/22/2021.

• ATBR- Audio Book Review: The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch; Genre: Alternate History, Police Procedure, Post-Apocalyptic, Time Travel; My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Content 4.25; Narration 4.25.

• Sunday Words of Encouragement July 18, 2021.

Finished Reading:

1. Audible/Smartphone (ATBR)

The Monster Hunter Files
By: Larry Correia, Jim Butcher, Faith Hunter, Jonathan Maberry
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Khristine Hvam, Bailey Carr
Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
I enjoyed this group of stories full of monsters and snark.
Source: Audible Daily Deal 4/24/2018 $4.95.

2. Audible/Smartphone (A2021)

A Change of Plans: A Short Story
By: Dennis E. Taylor
Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
I snagged this for a quick space listen.
Source: Audible Plus Catalog March 22, 2021.
Publisher's Summary
Earth is dying, and humanity is scrambling to set up colonies in other star systems. But the search process for habitable planets is not perfect, as the crew of the Ouroboros discover on arrival at their new home.
©2017 Dennis E. Taylor (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Currently Reading:

1. ebook/Kindle App on Computer (Author2021)

The Alchemy Thief
by R.A. Denny
Small progress this week due to working at night.
I hope to get it finished this week.
Source: Author review request.
Click on book title for full description.

2. Audible/Smartphone (A2021)

A Long Time Until Now
By: Michael Z. Williamson
Narrated by: Dennis Holland
Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
Release date: 06-02-15
I see dinosaurs and men and I want to read about it! This has been a little slow as it is setting up but I anticipate there will be more action soon.
Source: 1/31/21 Audible 2 for 1 credit sale.
Publisher's Summary
Book one in a new series from the creator of the best-selling Freehold Universe series.
A military unit is thrust back into Paleolithic times with only their guns and portable hardware. Ten soldiers on convoy in Afghanistan suddenly find themselves lost in time. Somehow they arrived in Earth's Paleolithic Asia. With no idea how they arrived or how to get back, the shock of the event is severe. They discover groups of the similarly displaced: imperial Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and a small cadre of East Indian peasants.
Despite their technological advantage, the soldiers only have 10 people and know no way home. Then two more time travelers arrive from a future far beyond the present. These time travelers may have the means to get back, but they aren't giving it up. In fact they may have a treacherous agenda of their own, one that may very well lead to the death of the displaced in a harsh and dangerous era.
©2015 Michael Z. Williamson (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

3. Print (2021)

The Iron Triangle: Inside the Liberal Democrat Plan to Use Race to Divide Christians and America in their Quest for Power and How We Can Defeat Them
by Vince Everett Ellison
I made good progress in this and will complete it this week.
I am making slow progress.
Source: Purchased in March 2021.
Click on book title for full description.

July 18, 2021 - I remain on track. I love seeing new things each time I read the Bible. I am glad to still be current with morning reading. I am reading/listening to the NLT Tyndale version of the Bible on You Version App so Hubby and I are reading the same passages each day.
I finished the seven day study: God Hears us Pray and a three day study: Choosing Each Day: God Or Self?

I completed three books to review this week.
I forgot I added one last week so NetGalley shelf is at five - 3 old and two new.
Now five author titles are in queue. I'll be working on these next soon.
(Plus a few that I received from facebook links and newsletter sign-ups, not specific review requests.)
Still many titles through InstaFreebie and many new author requests I haven't replied to.

Welcome to Mailbox Monday.

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This Meme started with Marcia at A Girl and Her Books (fka The Printed Page) and after a tour of hosts has returned to its permanent home at Mailbox Monday. Thanks to the ladies sharing hosting duties: Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, me and new to the team, Velvet at vvb32reads. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
BIG 'mailbox' for me this week!
I accepted a poetry collection from the author (with the warning I might not get to it for a month or so).
I selected my second June Audible credit AND bought oodles of audiobooks (4 from Chirp and 9 at Audible).
One free Kindle titles this week.
(Note these are in my Amazon library, NOT on my Kindle until I download and transfer them.)
Are your mailbox and TBR piles blooming?

Review Titles

I accepted an Author request to read and review:
Debut Poetry Collection

Palm Lines
by Jonathan Koven

Won

NONE

Purchased

I had a bit of a shopping spree this week on Audio titles.
First: 7/17/2021 four audiobooks at Chrip for total $9.96

Fevre Dream
Written by George R. R. Martin
Narrated by Ron Donachie
Run Time 13h 35min
$25.00  $3.99 (Fantasy)

Cut
Written by Annelie Wendeberg
Narrated by Emma Galvin
Run Time 6h 4min
$16.95  $2.99 (Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian)

Fatal Intent
Written by Tammy Euliano
Narrated by Kathleen Godwin
Run Time 8h 50min
$10.50   $0.99 (Mystery/Thriller)

Moon Marked Trilogy
Written by Aimee Easterling
Narrated by Piper Goodeve
Run Time 17h 1min
$19.99   $1.99 (Fantasy - I listened to and liked book 1)

7/18/2021 Then I found that Audible was having a $5.00 sale on Sci Fi and Fantasy titles.
I had to spend time going through the offerings – adding way too many to my Wish List – then weeding out those that I might buy later with credits or could get through Kindle Unlimited. Whew, it’s hard to resist and stay in (some kind of ) budget! Final total $46.00 for 10 books.
10 NEW to me Authors and Series:
Audible Second June Credit Pick
(I’ve been eyeing this series for a while.)
The Blade Itself
By: Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
Series: The First Law Trilogy (Abercrombie), Book 1 (3 books)
$Credit Regular Price: $25.08

(Two Military Sci Fi titles.)

Junkyard Pirate
By: Jamie McFarlane
Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
Series: Junkyard Pirate, Book 1 (4 books)
Length: 10 hrs
$5.00 Regular Price: $19.95

Man of War
By: M. R. Forbes
Narrated by: Jeff Hays
Series: Rebellion, Book 1 (3 books)
Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $29.99

(I enjoy the LitRPG genre now and then.)
Barrow King: An Epic LitRPG/GameLit Adventure
By: C.M. Carney
Narrated by: Armen Taylor
Series: The Realms Series, Book 1 (8 books)
Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $24.95

(This “horror” looks/sounds like fun and a good book for my October reading of ghostly things.)

A Dirty Job
By: Christopher Moore
Narrated by: Fisher Stevens
Series: Grim Reaper, Book 1 (2 books)
Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $30.79

(The next three are Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian choices. )
End of Summer
By: S.M. Anderson
Narrated by: Jay Snyder
Series: Seasons of Man, Book 1 (2 books)
Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $34.99

What's Left of My World
By: C.A. Rudolph
Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
Series: What's Left of My World, Book 1 (7 books)
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $24.95

EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots
By: Jonathan Hollerman
Narrated by: Kent Clark
Series: EMP: Equipping Modern Patriots, Book 1 (4 books)
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $23.08

This two Fantasies are Singles (so far)
(Fantasy Romance)
The Emperor's Arrow
By: Lauren D. M. Smith
Narrated by: Felicity Munroe
Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
$5.00  Regular Price: $28.51

(Fantasy – vampire, wolf and hunter working together)
The Black Wolves of Boston
By: Wen Spencer
Narrated by: Ian Alan Carlsen, Corey Gagne, J. Paul Guimont, Jennywren Walker
Series: The Black Wolves of Boston, Book 1
Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
$6.00  Regular Price: $29.95

Free

One free Kindle titles this week:

Christmas at Hideaway Lake (A Hideaway Lake Novel Book 3)
Terri Lorah

Free titles often found at Bookbub, Bookfun, Ereader News Today, Inspired Reads, Pixel of Ink or Kindle ebooks.

Sunday Words of Encouragement July 18, 2021

Our church video didn’t show on Facebook this morning, so I am sharing a message on Sovereignty and Choice by Steve Cioccolanti:

He explains there is a perfect will of God and a permissive will. Pastor Steve distinguishes an individual’s level of consecration and dedication as limiting God’s perfect plan. Are we willing and obedient? Isaiah 1:19.

I have chosen this video to share, God Who Listens:

Verses for Today:
Psalm 78:40-43 NIV
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.


Prayer: Lord, I pray that you press on me to seek and respond to nothing less than Your perfect will.

Audio Book Review: The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch

This is a twisted time travel mystery thriller.

The Gone World
by Tom Sweterlitsch
Read by Brittany Pressley

Run Time 13h 38min
Release Date: February 6, 2018
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Genre: Alternate History, Police Procedure, Post-Apocalyptic, Time Travel
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Content 4.25; Narration 4.25.

Inception meets True Detective in this science fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind…
Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In Western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL’s family—and to locate his teenage daughter, who has disappeared. Though she can’t share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra—a ship assumed lost to the darkest currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL’s experience with the future has triggered this violence.
Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence or insight that will crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it’s not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time’s horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.
Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.

Review:
The government has secrets normal citizens don’t know. Sharon is part of a secret criminal unit that has the ability to travel to the future as part of its investigative process. It’s easier to capture a killer, and sometimes prevent a crime, if you already know where to look by seeing the future facts.

While investigating a particularly brutal murder involving a Navy SEAL and his family, Sharon learns the SEAL was an astronaut aboard a spaceship U.S.S. Libra which had traveled to Deep Time and was lost. Her further encounters lead to other members of the Libra crew, and she recognizes some of the mental trauma of time-travel that she has experienced first-hand.

Although Sharon is focused on solving the initial crime, and some other related crimes that occur along the way, she soon becomes aware from each trip in time that the Libra has started a chain reaction that will ultimately bring a horrific doom to society. Sharon’s investigations result in bringing that fate closer as what begins as a threat thousands of years in the future, moves forward to hundreds of years, then decades and then within two years. Unless Sharon can change the triggering events, the future of the world as she knows it will not exist.

Sharon can’t share the details of her special techniques and information with her civilian cohorts and this makes for interesting interactions in the current time and in future encounters. I admit the story is twisted which is fitting for time travel. The author does a good job of dealing with time travel issues of lapsed time and aging. The horrors of the Libra are a bit more contrived and stretch beyond the realms of realism. Although the epilogue is a bit lame, I give the author kudos for creating such an involved, twisted trail of events and bringing the journey back to the surprising start. I enjoyed the mix of time travel, sci fi and mystery. I recommend this to readers who like time travel and mystery, especially if they are prepared for a touch of horror.

Audio Notes: Brittany Pressley provides an excellent performance on the narration. I quickly was caught into Sharon’s life and world with the aid of the narration. Pressley delivers the characters with distinct voices and expression. The narration enhanced the story for me.

Source: 8/30/2020 Chirp Purchase for $4.99. This qualifies for 2021TBR and 2021Audiobook goals.

Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway July 16, 2021

Happy Friday! Last week I meant to say: "I hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying some good books!"  Same message (corrected) this week!

TO ENTER FRIDAY PICK.

US Entrants: Leave a comment and tell me WHICH BOOK you would like to get from the Friday Pick lists.

INTERNATIONAL: Leave a comment indicating "Gift Card" (see further comments near the end of the post.)

CUT OFF TIME IS THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 9:00 PM CENTRAL so I do not have to stay up too late to do the winner post! I will randomly pick two winners to announce Friday mornings with the next Pick post.

Thank you to all who entered the July 9, 2021 Pick. There were no automatic wins last week. Automatic wins are those who requested the book four times without other people asking for that book during those weeks. There was no title blocked.

CONGRATULATIONS
to Random.org picked Winners from July 9, 2021 Pick:
ALINA gets a GC

AND
BN100 gets Summer's Moon

All winners please fill in the Winner's Acceptance Form or email me to confirm your win, send your snail mail address information and let me know if you would like bookmarks - sensual, sexy or sweet bookmarks. {The form is new because Google changed their forms and the old one wasn't letting me print out the responses.}

Here's a book to help cool off during the hot summer days.
Image found at Gawker Review of Books.

New Book Box #94 May 28, 2021 (10 books)

Three Audio CD Books:
Web of Evil by J.A. Jance
One Good Deed by David Baldacci
Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts
SINGLE TITLES
Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale
The Hidden Heart by Laura Kinsale
A Summer of Firsts by Susan Wiggs and Sarah Morgan
Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
Christmas on 4th Street: An Anthology by Susan Mallery
The Stranger by Harlan Coben
Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson


New Book Groups #92 and #93 November 13, 2020.
#92 (15 books):

A Most Unsuitable Man by Jo Beverley
The Tender Stranger by Carolyn Davidson
Her Wedding Wish by Jillian Hart
Heart's Desire by Ruth Ryan Hagan
The Deputy's Duty by Terri Reed
Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs

Box #93 (14 books)

Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready
There's Only Been You by Donna Marie Rogers (personally signed)
For the Love of Pete by Julia Harper
The Irish Bride by Alexa Harrington
When We Met by Susan Mallery
Anne of Green Gables by Montgomery
All of Me by Lori Wilde

New Book Group #91 October 2, 2020 - Suspense themed

SINGLES: Ten books in this box:
Fight or Flight by Natalie J. Damschroder
The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman Audiobook

PICK TWO  your choice (listed below the picture) Nora Roberts:

Born in Fire Audiobook Cassettes
Montana Sky
Valley of Silence
Inner Harbor and
Chesapeake Blue


New Book Group #90 June 19, 2020
Quite a few mysteries in this box.

SINGLES:
Alias by Smy J. Fetzer
Hot Sex by Janet Evanovich (Audio cassettes)

New Book Group #89 March 6, 2020

Singles:
My Surrender by Connie Brockway
How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holoquist
Phoenix by A.J. Scudiere

New Book Group #88 November 8, 2019

Singles:
A Lady Never Tells by Candace Camp
Dawn of Redemption by Starla Childs

New Book Group #87 August 23, 2019

SINGLES:
Captain's Paradise by Kay Hooper
Open Season by Linda Howard AUDIO CASSETTES

New Book Group #86 June 7, 2019
Another group of variety from my shelves.

SINGLES:
Show No Fear by Marliss Melton
A Question of God's Balance (Vol 1) by Joseph Thek
King by Right of Blood and Might by Anna L. Walls

New Book Group #85 March 22, 2019
A variety from my shelves.

SINGLES:
Summer Skies by Judith Christenberry
Windfall (two stories) by JoAnn Ross
Daddy's Little Cowgirl (two stories) by Judith Bowen and Kimberly Raye
The Forever Year, Cold Pursuit, Lover's Lane and Temporary Sanity (Reader's Condensed)
ToxiCity by Libby Fischer Hillmann

New Book Group #84 December 15, 2018
Here are some Christmas titles to pick from.

SINGLES:
A Family for Thanksgiving
On this Holy Night
Christmas Haven
King Harold's Snow Job

New Book Group #83 November 30, 2018

(Starting bottom left and continuing up then down)
SINGLE
Seductive Secrets by Lynne Connolly
Seven Up by Janet Evanovich - Audio Cassettes
A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein Audio Cassettes
Three Reader's Digest Condensed Books - each hardback:

Cold Harbour and The Courtship of Peggy McCoy
The Things We Do for Love, Three Weeks With My Brother, The Murder Artist and Night Train to Lisbon
Follow the Stars Home, Hunting Badger, The Quiet Game and Second Wind

New Book Group #82 November 9, 2018

SINGLES:
Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews
Killing Time by Linda Howard
The Wedding Night by Barbara Dawson Smith

New Book Group #81 August 17, 2018

SINGLES
Best Laid Plans by Allison Brennan
Darkness Tell Us by Richard Laymon
Cooking Most Deadly by Joanne Pence

New Book Group #80 August 17, 2018

Note: The Final Judgment and
The Book of Fate are Audio Cassettes
SINGLES:
Summer’s Moon by Lacey Baker
The Final Judgment by Richard North PattersonAudio Cassettes
Firebird by Janice Graham
No Getting Over a Cowboy by Delores Fossen
The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer Audio Cassettes

New Book Group #79 July 13, 2018
I found this box of books buried under some other boxes.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lenox by Maggie O’Farrell
P.S. by Helen Schulman
Her Sexiest Surprise by Dawn Atkins (personally autographed)
Dakota Child by Linda Ford
Calling the Shots by Ellen Hartman
Promises, Promises by Amber Miller
This Time for Keeps by Jenna Mills
A Daughter’s Legacy by Virginia Smith
Another Man’s Baby by Kay Stockham

New Book Group #78 April 27, 2018

SINGLES
Blackberry Bush
Breaking Point
A Tangled Affair
Too Wicked to Love
Roses are Red Audio Cassettes

New Book Group #77 February 16, 2018- 

All gone

New Book Group #76 November 3, 2017
13 books remain of the original 37:

I finally Have them Listed!
Boots & Booties by Kristine Rolofson
Saucer the Conquest by Stephen Coonts
The Scorpion Seducer by Bonnie Vanak
Hell On Earth by David L. Porter
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
Crisscross by Harmon Henkin
Maelstrom by Anne McCaffrey
Inhuman Condition by Clive Barker
101 Commonsense Rules for the Office by John R. Brinkerhoff

This shelf of 35 books are what is left from Groups #1 (11/27/09) through Group #75 September 29, 2017

(Title list reads left at bottom to right at top - 14 titles.)
Rehabilitation
Secret Blessing
Named of the Dragon
Aunt Erma's Cope Book
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Bound by Destiny by Rayka Mennen

(Title list reads left at bottom to right at top - 21 titles.)
Plan of Attack by Dan Brown
(*Three One more very old books from my Gothics box.)
*The Man in the Garden by Paule Mason (1969 - yellowed)
Fire Dancer by Ann Maxwell
*Four One books are very old; pulled from a box of gothic novels I found.
*Maggie – Her Marriage by Taylor Caldwell (1953 very old, yellowed pages, some stain damage doesn't effect reading)
First Things First by Stephen R. Covey- Audio Cassette
Trilogy Of Mysteries Audio Book Shadow Prey, There Was A Little Girl, Smokescreen Audio Cassettes (NOT CDs)
Raintree Haunted by Linda Winstead Jones (spine creases)
The Shadowing by Joan Overfield
The Sweetheart Dance by Patti Ann Colt
BOX 4 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 47-53)
Undateable by Ellen Rakieten & Anne Coyle
Jezebel by Katherine Sutcliff
The Hidden Truth of Cytech's Randall Forty by Vickie Kennedy
Breakfast in Bed by Sandra Brown - Audio Cassette Tapes (link is for mass media version)
BOX 3 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 39- 47)
Shetland Summer by Janet Lynnford
BOX 2 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 24- 38)
The Trailsman: Texas Lead Slingers by Jon Sharpe
A Courtesans Guide to Getting Your Man by Susan Donovan and Celeste Bradley -- NOTE This book has dog bite damage; it is missing half back cover and the edges of pages in the back third of the book... it does not effect the text but I will understand if no one wants this one
An Honorable Man by Rosemary Rogers (spine creases)
The Willful Widow by Valerie King (spine wear)
Foundation (Foundation Novels) by Isaac Asimov
BOX #1 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 1- 23)
Ghost Writer (Shivers #3) by M.D. Spenser
Alien Chronicles - The Crimson Claw by Deborah Chester

If you saw the pictures posted of my bookshelves and boxes you know I do have lots of books! And that doesn't include the other eight or so boxes at my office!! And more books as I find deals too good to pass up! I am sharing my book bounty by these Friday Pick Giveaways.

I started Friday Pick on November 27, 2009 and in almost TEN years I have posted 91 groups of 16 books plus an additional 21 totaling 1,477 books available to find new homes! (As of November 6, 2020).

I am happy to say that so far about 1,367 books have found new homes through this feature! YAY. [A year or so ago I posted I had reached 2000 books given away. As I calculated the numbers 11/2/17 I realized that had to be an error. I realized I went from 1098 to 2001 instead of 1101. Guess I was tired; sorry for the error.] I have to update my print out to check the exact number sent out - a few were never claimed. I periodically update the lists - deleting those won. You can still go to the Friday Pick list link to see older posts and the older lists book pictures if you want!

Note rules here regarding international entries.

Because postage to overseas can be prohibitive I am willing to give a $5.00 book certificate to international winners - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, TWRP, etc....you tell me where and I'll set it up. So for my overseas visitors, your comment may indicate a smaller book and I'll check postage or note your choice of gift card.

I learned that The Book Depository does not ship to everywhere. The postage for some of the books to faraway places runs between $7.00 and $10.00 and up. Since I would award $5.00 for The Book Depository to an international winner, as an alternative you may choose a smaller book and we will hope the postage will not exceed $6.00. If the postage is more, or if you want to pick a larger book and you are willing to pay any extra postage beyond the $6.00 I will work with you on that. This may not make a difference to many but if it helps one or two of you to give one of my books a home that will make me happy too. :o)

Repeating this helpful blog tip: You can right click on a link and you will be given the choice to open the link in a new window or tab so you do not navigate away from the screen you are on!! I use this all the time!

Audible Book Review: Baron Steele by Rhett C. Bruno, Jaime Castle

This is a quick, fun story about a retired superhero.
Baron Steele
By: Rhett C. Bruno , Jaime Castle
Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Series: Raptors, Audible Original Stories
Length: 47 mins
Release date: 10-22-20
Publisher: Audible Originals
Categories: Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Content 4.0; Narration 4.5.

About This Audible Original
Paul Steele, known to the world as Baron Steele, isn’t your average masked crimefighter. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even wear a mask. And he doesn’t even fight crime anymore. That’s for the guys with too much brawn and not enough brain.
No, Steele works in consulting. After having his license revoked by the Guild of Masked Crimefighters, he decided he would scout talent instead. Match up heroes with their villainous counterparts, help the young bucks and buckettes discover their talents and abilities. That sort of thing.
It’s all going fine and well until Steele gets a bad cup of coffee. No. Seriously. Day after day, the same little twerp gets his order wrong. From there, it’s a downhill spiral into chaos, and Steele finds himself fighting for his freedom in a court of law. Did he really kill a barista over a cup of joe?
Don't miss this hilarious spin on the superhero genre from the number one Audible best-selling duo of Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle.
©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Aethon Books

Review:
Paul Steele, formerly known as masked crimefighter Baron Steele, retired from active crimefighting after he ran into problems with the superhero guild. Now Steele operates a consulting business, scouting new crimefighter talents. He interviews would-be-heroes to determine if they have appropriate skills and if they do, he helps to train them in preparation of facing a matched villain.

One morning Steele has had it with a local barista who keeps messing up his coffee. His tirade against the young man is witnessed by others and will come back to haunt him, landing him in trouble again with the Guild.

I really didn’t know what to expect, but this is a quick, fun story. Baron Steele is a gruff, realistic character. I appreciate the world-building and irony in the events, all of which are distributed in under an hour! Great for a quick listen and I will look forward to listening to more in the series. I recommend this to those who enjoy superhero, comic book type stories, and short stories.

Audio Notes: R.C. Bray does his usual spot-on narration bringing Steele’s character - the contempt, arrogance, and frustrations - to life. He also provides distinct voices and fitting emotion for each of the other characters. The narration contributed to my enjoyment of the story.

Source: Audible Plus Catalog October 2020. This qualifies for 2021TBR and 2021Audiobook goals.